Liverpool Land in Pot Three for Champions League Draw

Heading into the final day of the Champions League playoff, Liverpool’s place in the group stage draw was up in the air with the Benfica-PAOK tie balanced at 1-1 after one leg. If PAOK won, Liverpool would end up in pot two. If Benfica won, Liverpool would be in pot three.

In the end, Benfica won, hammering PAOK on the road in the second leg after struggling against them at home, and with that Liverpool know that they will head into Thursday’s draw for the Champions League group stages in pot three. For many, this is a negative.

After all, with UEFA drawing one team from pots one, two, three, and four to make up each group and the strongest teams generally in groups one and two, being in pot three means a likely harder group for Liverpool—and could mean they end up in a group of death.

However, one paper at least there aren’t any sides in pot two Liverpool will be hugely wary of matching up with—they may be a pot three team today due to their scant track record in Europe in recent seasons, but every sign points to them being a pot one team by talent.

Liverpool, then, may end up in a group of death, but it will be that because of Liverpool’s inclusion and it’s difficult to imagine a group from the potential options—including even one that draws Inter Milan from pot four—the Reds won’t be favoured to advance from.

Pot One

Atletico Madrid
Barcelona
Bayern Munich
Juventus
Lokomotiv Moscow
Manchester City*
Paris Saint-Germain
Real Madrid

Pot Two

Benfica
Borussia Dortmund
Manchester United*
Napoli
Porto
Roma
Shakhtar Donetsk
Tottenham Hotspur*

Pot Three

Dinamo Kiev
PSV Eindhoven
Liverpool
Lyon
Monaco
CSKA Moscow
Schalke
Valencia

Pot Four

AEK Athens
Club Brugge
Galatasaray
Hoffenheim
Inter Milan
Red Star Belgrade
Viktoria Plzen
Young Boys

Liverpool cannot be drawn into a group with any other English side, meaning that in addition to one of the clubs from pot one they will face one of Benfica, Dortmund, Napoli, Porto, Roma, or Dontesk.